Inktrails from Alaska

Want a little cinnamon with that?

Sometimes I feel like I'm channeling Rowan Atkinson.

I get up early, read a little email, and decide I'd better drink something hot and wake up. I'm avoiding brewed coffee for the sake of my stomach, so I've been making hot chocolate. The only problem this morning is that the Swiss Miss is nearly gone. There's not really enough left to make a good cup. So I decided to add a touch of instant coffee, and a dash of cinnamon and call it good.

I put the kettle on, then poured the last teaspoon and a half of Swiss Miss into my cup, and added my tiny dab of instant coffee. The kettle wasn't ready yet, and I grabbed the bottle of cinnamon and shook a little into the cup and the lid fell off the shaker and about a quarter cup of cinnamon fell on top of the only hot chocolate mix left in my house.

Argh.

I scraped out as much as a could with a spoon before I put the hot water in, but even so, once hydrated it was mud. Very strong-flavored mud! Fluffy mud. It wasn't nice at all, very nasty consistency. Bleah!

Sigh.

I did salvage something, but it wasn't easy.

And how was YOUR morning?

Coyote Dog Hunting in Deep Snow

It's been snowing for about a week on and off, and grey a lot of the time. Today dawned brilliantly blue so we went outside for some fun in the snow.

Uh, I don't know about dis snow hill, uh, Sofie, what are you doing?

OH, I get it!

Wait, what's that?

Do I hear something?

Let's check this out.

You can tell from her face that she'd done a bunch of face first jumps trying to catch voles. Plus she just loves snow. She'll "swim" in deep snow.

Beautiful View

Here is our little town of Fairbanks, Alaska, shot from the upper storey of the new Morris Thompson Cultural Center. We gather up here to play fiddle once a week, and it was such a gorgeous day outside that I thought I'd take advantage of the blue sky to share it with you.

When summer comes I'm looking forward to fiddling out there on that balcony!

That's the Chena River running right through town. In the summer you can boat on it, and ride sternwheelers. In the winter you can ride your snowmachine on it, or drive your dog sled. In fact, I watched as some folks from the Yukon Quest dog race started getting set up for the mushers who will be coming in next week from Whitehorse. Every other year the race starts in Fairbanks, every other year the race starts in Whitehorse. So one year we get to send them off, the next year we get to welcome them at the finish line. It's always fun to see them arrive, the dogs with tongues hanging and the mushers barely coping! The riverbanks are lined with people, the river itself is arranged into lanes and all the helpers are running around like arctic ants. Meanwhile we just watch and sip hot cider, coffee or cocoa enjoying the sunshine and waiting for the racers.

Be sure to click on these to get the full picture!

With Wacky Weather, a Back Door Would Really Help

We've been having one gray day, then one clear day, then one gray day and so on. It snowed a little the last couple of days, which was nice, really. When it snows you generally know the temperatures aren't too extreme. Lose that cloud cover (as horribly depressing as it is) and the temperatures go down to the basement. A couple days ago it was a balmy 20 above. Yesterday it was 10 above and snowing. I got home around 7:30 last night and it had stopped snowing and was 0°. Two hours later it was -20° and that's where it has stuck. Good thing I plugged in the truck last night. It's not good for it to start up unwarmed at temperatures like that.

The dogs aren't minding the temperature change at all! I just took them out and they weren't even picking up their feet, which surprised me. All the more so since yesterday at my studio something went wacky with the furnace (maybe a stuck zone valve) and by 5:00 it was 80° and rising! I don't relish going from -20 to over 80° just by entering my studio! I hope they got the furnace fixed last night!

I really need a back door so that I can let the dogs out to play while still getting ready to go somewhere. Especially in very cold weather! As it stands, I have to gear up for standing out in the weather for 20 minutes, leash up the dogs, arm myself against moose (tambourine!) and walk all the way back around the house to the gate to get into my own backyard. Then stand in the yard with them until one of us is too cold to stay out any longer, or everyone is pooped out from playing. Or just pooped out. ;o)

Life would be so much easier if I could open the back door and let the dogs out like a normal person. Most of you take this sort of thing for granted. Unfortunately a little cabin in Alaska doesn't always have normal amenities!

It's an expensive project (because everything in Alaska is an expensive project!) involving cutting a hole in my house, adding a header (weight-bearing wall), adding a window (so I can see the dogs, moose, whatever) and building at least a small porch because my house is up off the ground about four feet. Alaska houses have massive walls to keep in the heat and incorporate lots of insulation. It's not just cutting a door-size hole...  And this doesn't include paying someone to do it!

This would help in case of a fire too. I have no exit other than a balcony and a front door. Dogs can't exit a balcony! I need a back door to be safe from fire. This is probably more important than letting the dogs out!

Anyone who would like to help me with this project (can't do it until at least June) please feel free to donate any amount at all to the Back Door Fund. There is a button and explanation on the left sidebar about halfway down the page. Many, many thanks to anyone so kind as to help me with the expense!

Extreme Measures to Fill Emotional Hole

I watched, or tried to watch, Nadya Suleman talk about her reasons for having fourteen children. Several things struck me that haven't been talked about.

Her tone of voice was shut-down, hushed, overly controlled. It was as if she were living her life in a big, pink, fuzzy bubble. These statements she made, that she was a responsible mother, that she could take care of all fourteen children, that she wasn't taking welfare, were all the lies she tells herself. She wasn't really speaking clearly, and she wasn't using he real voice. It was almost monotone. It gave me the creeps.

Even two working parents would have a problem paying for the needs of fourteen healthy children, never mind that many of the children have disabilities. The idea that she could afford to raise all the children is ludicrous, fantasy.

Her collagen-pumped lips bothered me, but not as much as her attitude that the children were there to fulfill the emotional hole she has. She openly admitted that she wanted a "huge" family to fill her emotional void that, she says, she thinks everyone has.

Even though she said her whole life revolved around her children,  to Ms. Suleman, the fertilized eggs were her property, and she was going to "use what I had." This is her defense of having six embryos emplanted at once, instead of two or a maxiumum of three, as any ethical fertility doctor would have done.

My heart breaks for these children, who have done nothing to deserve such a self-involved mother. I hope that somehow, some way, these children get the attention and care they need, all of them. The first six as well as the second eight.

I have an ex-husband who grew up in a family of six. He bitterly complained that he rarely got enough of his parent' attention. I can only imagine what it would have been like with fourteen.

My mother grew up in a family of fourteen, and the authorities didn't feel the parents were taking care of the children, so the kids were fostered out. I'm sure it was for the best, as traumatic as it was. Back in the 30s and 40s it wasn't common for authorities to step in and take children, but in this case they did.

I can't help but think that something like that needs to happen with the Suleman children. I'm sure many people would be willing to adopt some of them.

Whether or not she retains custody of these children, Nadya Suleman needs serious psychiatric help.

A "Little" Visitor This Morning

I looked up from reading email to see this fellow out in the yard. I took as many pictures as I could through my tiny windows, but he stepped off into the sticks (his food) pretty quickly. His mama is out there somewhere, so the dogs will have to cross their little legs until I'm sure it's safe to go outside again.

These two (the invisible mama moose and this calf) have been on and around my property for over a week, and this is the first time I've seen either of them. If you look at the next two pictures you'll see why they are so hard to see. They step into the woods and simply vanish.

Playing With the Frozen Apple "Toy": Video

First, you have to realize that it was -25°F today. So the dogs weren't exactly feeling like playing all that much. In fact, if you watch Ole closely, you'll see him actually stand on his front two feet for a second! But both dogs are adapted and used to these temperatures and as you can see, did have quite a bit of fun!

These apples are totally frozen. They feel like billiard balls, but they're a bit lighter. Small nibbles might be had, and the used one obviously has some scratches on it, but there isn't any way they are going to chew these apples up!

They do get to eat non-frozen apples in the house, though!